In memory of our brother and son, Robert Bagnell,
who died moments after being tasered by police in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 23, 2004. Bob was the 7th Canadian to die and the 110th in North America.

WELCOME to TRUTH ... not TASERS

Friday, July 10, 2009

July 10, 2009By JEFFREY SIMPSON, Chronicle HeraldHalifax police officers were told before arresting a man who died 30 hours after being Tasered that he was mentally unstable and acting aggressively.

On Thursday, an inquiry into the death of Howard Hyde heard 12 minutes of radio communications between dispatchers and officers responding to a domestic dispute call from the man’s common-law wife on Nov. 21, 2007.

The recording indicates that Karen Ellet told Const. Brad Jardine at her apartment that Hyde was schizophrenic and had hit her before fleeing from the fourth-floor balcony.

"He’s arrestable for assaulting his wife and he’s very mentally unstable, so heads up," the Halifax Regional Police officer said on his police radio after another officer spotted Mr. Hyde outside a few minutes later wearing only boxer shorts.

The dispatcher also told police that the call for help had come from the mobile crisis unit, which Ms. Ellet had contacted initially that night to get mental health help for Mr. Hyde.

"There’s a male in the background being very aggressive with her," the dispatcher told the officers.

The fatality inquiry is examining how police and corrections officers handle mentally ill people and trying to determine what happened to Mr. Hyde.

Ms. Ellet explained to Const. Jardine after Mr. Hyde was arrested that her common-law husband hadn’t been taking his medication regularly and that he was afraid of being Tasered again by police. But Const. Jardine didn’t pass that information along to the officer taking the 45-year-old musician to the police station for booking.

Const. Jardine said after police arrested Mr. Hyde, his demeanour had calmed significantly from when they heard him yelling inside the apartment before he fled, so he didn’t believe the man was having a mental health episode.

"There was no speaking in tongues or any irrational thought process," Const. Jardine said, adding later in the day that, "I expected a much different person downstairs."

So police decided to take Mr. Hyde to the station for booking instead of the hospital for a doctor’s assessment.

Mr. Hyde tried to escape at the station after officers approached him with a knife-like instrument to cut the drawstring from his shorts and he was Tasered twice.

The jolts stopped his heart and he was revived by CPR before being taken to the hospital. The inquiry, which is being webcast on the Internet, is expected to be able to view as early as today the scuffle recorded by surveillance cameras at the station.

After being called to the hospital, Const. Jardine noticed that Mr. Hyde’s heart rate at one point spiked to 200 — way above normal — as he rested in bed, but a nurse assured him things were fine. Mr. Hyde was chatting coherently with the officer before going to sleep.

But Const. Jardine said he was surprised to learn Mr. Hyde was later cleared to leave the hospital, despite his heart issues.

"He was where he was supposed to be, in my mind," he said.

Mr. Hyde was taken to the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth, where he spent the night. He lost consciousness the next morning while struggling with correctional officers and was declared dead in hospital at 8:42 a.m.

"I was really upset," Const. Jardine said. "I told him everything would be OK when I left the hospital."

Const. Jardine couldn’t recall any mental health training he received while attending police academy or a four-week orientation course he took after being hired, but he said he has had a lot of experience dealing with people with such issues.

Still, police are overworked due to a lack of resources, he said. "We have to do the best with what we have."

Const. Jardine’s partner, Const. Gyles Gillis, said he didn’t recall hearing the "significant information" about Mr. Hyde’s mental state on the police radio at the apartment building.

"It wouldn’t have changed the way we handled the call," Const. Gillis said.

Kevin MacDonald, a lawyer representing Mr. Hyde’s sister and her husband at the inquiry, said any officer who had contact with Mr. Hyde had the option of taking him for a psychological assessment by a doctor who could have hospitalized the man.

"He should have received treatment and that’s one of the questions we want addressed," Mr. MacDonald said outside the courtroom where the hearing is being held.

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taser-Related Deaths = 997+ in North America

See "A LIST OF THE DEAD"According to Taser International, the taser had nothing to do with any of these deaths. According to Amnesty International, the taser has been identified as either a cause or contributing factor in at least 60 of them. That number would be higher; however medical examiners and coroners are often not impartial but are instead biased in favour of the Crown or, as has been shown, they are under tremendous pressure from - among others - Taser International, to make a particular finding.See Judge rules for Taser in cause-of-death decisions

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Taser International finally admits risk that their weapons may affect the human heart

RCMP - TASERS POTENTIALLY LETHAL

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My Brother - Robert Bagnell June 27, 1959 - June 23, 2004

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2) Until such time as independent and unbiased study into the "real world" safety implications of Tasers has been properly completed, a moratorium must be imposed upon these weapons.

3) If, after independent and unbiased study has been completed, the Taser is going to remain in the police arsenal, it must be placed at a level equal to lethal force on the continuum of force and used only as a second-to-last resort.

4) Safety standards must be developed for Tasers. There are currently no Canadian safety standards in place for this weapon.

5) Police must not be allowed to investigate themselves but must be subject to independent and unbiased civilian oversight.

6) Families of people who die in police custody in Canada must be provided with funding so that they may be properly represented by legal counsel.

07. Robert Bagnell, 44 – Vancouver, BC - June 23, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Consistent with restraint-associated cardiac arrest due to acute cocaine intoxication and psychosis. Bob's autopsy report showed marks on his body consistent to multiple taser shots, which incidently could not be affirmed by the pathologist because she could not explain those marks.

09. Samuel Truscott, 43 – Kingston, ON - August 8, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Heart attack cause by drug overdose and "I can state categorically that the Taser did not play any role whatsoever in his death" said Chief Coroner for Ontario, Jim Cairns

24. Michael Langan, 17, Winnipeg, MB - July 22, 2008 - tasered 1 time - the autopsy report says Langan's death was caused by a heart arrhythmia brought on by the Taser shocks

25. Sean Reilly, 42 - Brampton, ON - September 17, 2008 - Peel Regional Police - X26 - tasered 2 times - the inquest jury will determine the official cause of death, however, “the forensic evidence indicated that the force used by the officers, including the Taser discharge, did not contribute to his death"

27. Trevor Grimolfson, 38 - Edmonton, AB - October 29, 2008, X26 - According to sources, after he was pepper sprayed, Trevor was tasered directly on the chest 5 times and tasered on the back of the neck 2 more times - Edmonton police said he was only tasered 2 times but testing on the tasers proves otherwise - "Official" cause of death: excited delirium brought on by drugs

29. Grant William Prentice, 40 - Brooks, AB - May 6, 2009 - RCMP - tasered 2 times - "Official" cause of death: acute cocaine toxicity and "the medical examiner also concluded the taser did not play a role in the death"

Ain't it the truth!

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80% percent of the population could be moved in either direction

Human rights activist Susan Sontag, when asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.

THE Successes AREN'T the Problem

"The issue is not whether or not the taser can be used in a high percentage of cases to reduce death and/or physical trauma to officers and civilians alike. The issue is whether or not it's OK to kill the rest through ignorance and rationalization just because it's a small percentage ... The successes aren't the problem - the failures are. They're being told that tasers are nonlethal, so they blast away until people can't move. They're killing people by accident." Dave Siegler, father of Raymond Siegler, who died on February 12, 2004

The artistic side of Robert Bagnell

WE KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE

ROBERT ANGLEN

Robert Anglen, a reporter with The Arizona Republic, documented the first 167 Taser-related deaths. Mr. Anglen launched a journalistic investigation of Taser International, linking the Taser to multiple deaths, among other eye-openers.

At the 2005 Arizona Press Club Awards, Mr. Anglen won first place in the Investigative reporting category. He was the recipient of the Don Bolles Award for his report entitled "Taser tied to 'independent' study that backs stun gun'. “As part of an extraordinarily thorough investigation of Taser International, Anglen uncovered ‘smoking gun’ documents that showed the manufacturer was heavily involved in the key study that purported the devices are safe. Anglen also uncovered conflicts of interest and documented wide-spread problems with Taser safety — a matter of national and international public interest.”

In 2006, Mr. Anglen was a runner up for the Arizona Press Club's Virg Hill Journalist of the Year award. Peter Bhatia of The Oregonian wrote “Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter, pure and simple. Clearly, he is a reporter who, once he sinks his teeth into something, stays with it until the story is done. His ongoing work around the company that makes Tasers speaks to that."